RP:When Books Attack
Black Library, Vailkrin
Daisy is posting a wonderful post of happenings! Maybe our sweet kitten is lost or wandering or knowing exactly where she is going. Nah. None of those things are a thing of doing right now. Right now is for being tugged along by a couatl on a mission! A mission of knowing and smelling and yes. Yes there is a certain something(one) down in this library that the fat Mamoru wants to see. "Mamoru slow down." The kitten clings desperately to her companion's back as he takes her just wherever he pleases.
Satoshi cannot hide from couatls, even if she tried. Especially one as determined and stalwart as Mamoru. Which is precisely why Satoshi will be discovered by the scaled and furred duo, tucked away in a corner of the library with uneven stacks of books gathered around like a queen's guard. Across the kit's lap is the mother of all books, large enough likely for Daisy to use as a mattress if she wanted to, and every crinkling page is filled to bursting with arcane scribblings. It's a strange language, and clearly an old one, but it seems to have Satoshi completely enthralled--a dangerous thing to be, in a town like Vailkrin.
Daisy 's little nose picks up the queen's scent long after Mamoru does. For shame, kitten. Paying attention to things going on around you is a good idea, don't you think? Ah well. At least you have Mamoru to look after you. Probably a good thing too. Silent couatls are silent as they move across library floors. So quiet that not even lovely foxish ears hear them approach. They can not, however, hide from foxy eyes. Especially when that fat couatl head slowly peeks up from behind that massive book to blink at the studious queen. He'd clear his throat, if couatls could do such a thing. But he doesn't. All our fair sees is a pair of eyes that giggle a kittenish giggle that isn't coming from the Mamoru at all, but the imagery is great.
Satoshi is not fit to call herself the Director of the Assassin's Guild, a fact she realizes when a distant giggle catches her ears and she glances up--to a face full of couatl. "Bwah!!" With a surprised yelp, the magus tumbles backwards, oversized book upended in Mamoru's direction while Satoshi is lost in a cascade of other, smaller, tomes. A touch of deepening chill and the shimmer of frost creeps across the immediate area then, a result of the kit being startled and sparking her magic. A faint glow comes from the script of the Mother of All Books, as if it's feeding on the ambient energy.
Daisy 's eyes and mouth round with an 'ohnoes' expression. Startling folks isn't always the best. Especially when those folks could take you out with a sneeze! She shudders that chill away and then slides off Mamoru's back. Well. More she is thrown off since the couatl is trying to avoid being smashed in the face with largeish reading material. The kitten lands on her tush. "Oomph..." Don't worry. Her fat bottom cushioned any kind of hurt that fall could have caused. They make this rockin' world go round, you know. Quick! Find the queen! And off she goes, climbing the fallen stacks of books to dig where she is sure the Satoshi might be. Books are tossed... hey! Don't toss books like that! She looks at the book in her paws and nods then procedes to carefully move the books to the side, placing them gently over there. Oh! One last book is removed and there is a pretty face looking back at her. The kitten smiles her great big n.n smile. "Hi."
Satoshi wriggles lopsided whiskers at Daisy in response. "Hullo, Sundrop~." A bit of squirming and shuffling, then the kit is sitting up once more amid a sea of toppled books. Even as her hands absently begin to organize and defrost the collapsed towers, Satoshi is offering a smile and nod to Mamoru. "And to you too, monsieur Fabulous Scales. Oops, mind your tail there~." Satoshi gestures to the couatl's feathery tail where it lies atop the big book, color beginning to leech from the glorious feathers and spread into the book's ink to produce a rainbow of text.
Daisy helps with the organizing, but is absolutely useless with the defrosting. She'll just leave that bit to the expert. Mamoru stares at Satoshi and then back at his tail. His tail! It is quickly yanked from those pages and hugged to his chest area. Stupid book! Don't you know you don't just go around stealing people's rainbows? It is uncouth, I say! Also uncouth... Mini maladroit tails taking advantage of distracted kittens. It lifts its leathery self up to have a peek for something to stab. There is even a little sparkle and that 'ping' noise that happens when stuff is shiny on one of the spikes. Foolish tails are foolish and just want to be like a certain drow with the pointy and the stabbery and... is the kitten watching? No. No the kitten doesn't notice the tail noticing the queen.
Satoshi may be preoccupied with restoring order to her books, but that doesn't mean she's completely oblivious. Or, at least her own tails aren't. Like a nest of viper's the nine vulpine tails rear up and fan out, coiled in a serpentine poise to strike as they loom over the Maladroit tail. Raw malice radiates from them and they almost seem to hiss with the movement of their fur, Asorial clearly to carry an innate hostility for the stinging intent. It's Asorial's wakefulness that catches Satoshi's attention, so that the kit glances over her shoulder to see her tails animated and aggressive, making threatening movements toward Daisy. A perplexed look is sent the kitten's way, along with a nudge of her shoulder. "I don't think our tails like each other much. ...Wherever did you get such a vicious looking thing anyway? I was rather fond of the feathers."
Daisy blinks at the nudge then at Satoshi then at her tail. "No!" She gasps and turns to pounce that foul beast. Both paws wrap around it just beneath the spikes and she gives it a little shake. Holding it with one paw, the other points a single digit for wagging and scolding and frowning. She isn't exactly sure what it was that took her, but she goes on to explain the eating of a cookie gifted by a faceless creature that took her swimming deep in the ocean and then up in the stars. She describes the gaunt the best she can before explaining how she was turned into a gauntlet. "... and then I was me again, with wings and this tail."
Satoshi looks... envious, of all things. Here she's been for weeks now, trying to find the right arrangement of spells, inks, and designs to conjure working wings, and Daisy adventures off with a myterious gaunt, and comes back with her own pair as a bonus! Although, Satoshi doesn't quite like the idea of getting a spiked and stab-happy tail in the process. She has her hands full with nine furry ones that are always looking for a bit of bloodthirsty fun. Perhaps the long and tedious road of magework is the right path for Satoshi after all, even if it draws a whimsical sigh from the magus. "sounds like quite the adventure you've stumbled on yet again, Sundrop. Me thinks you might have a bit of Azakhaer blood in you, the way your nose leads you to trouble and fun~." Like right about now, as the overgrown books suddenly thumps against the ground and rustles its pages, the sound strangely impatient and demanding. It even seems to have shuffled nearer to Mamoru, if such things were possible--but books can't move and act, can they?
Daisy 's little wings aren't really good for anything but decoration. They're tiny and can't even lift her off the ground - which is just fine with her. She gets enough flying with Mamoru to use up all her airtime quota. "What is Azakhaer?" She does like fun! Trouble, not so much. But fun is fun and while the new tails can be a hassle at times, this one has actually proved to be a bit useful. She just needs to test it more. Kitten and couatl eyes shift to the party rockin' book. "Does it do that every day?" Mamoru lowers his chin to the floor to get a closer look, but takes care not to touch the strange magic.
Satoshi adjusts an armful of books and begins stacking them into place, answering Daisy from over her shoulder. "Azakhaer is the family name of Kasyr and myself, the House Svilfon and Kirien belong to as well. But unless Kasyr's been biting you and I have a little Sired sister I wasn't told about, my comment was purely in jest~." As she sets the last of the books back where they belong, Satoshi's vulpine ears twitch and she half-turns toward the druid. "Does what do what ever-- Mamoru don't!" The warning likely comes too late, for the moment the couatl has lowered his snout toward the book, pages give a greedy hiss and suddenly the item is lunging at Mamoru with its covers snapping together like jaws. It's tasted couatl aura, it wants more!
Daisy has not been bitten by anyone -that she knows of- and tells the queen so. "Families are nice." Panic is thrown about by foxes and kittens, doing nothing for the curious couatl who gets a nose full of book teeth! Aura stealing teeth threatening with papercuts and lemon juice, but not really lemon juice cause there isn't any here and papercuts aren't really a thing for scales. But aura stealing is! Mamoru thrashes his head and body and wings and the whole room is just a mess of angry couatl who does not like a book on his face!
Satoshi said to Daisy, "We have to get it off. It'll drain him dry if we don't!" Already the book is looking more colorful than Mamoru, the couatl's scales becoming duller by the second as he's fed upon. Satoshi's not entirely sure what makes a couatl so delicious, but she's never seen her book act quite so aggressive before. Yes, it's bitten her a number of times, and latched on once or twice, however never as fiercely as it is with Mamoru now. Perhaps it has grown tired of its steady diet of Ice magic, an aura that has dyed its cover and inks a variety of blues. A new flavor, and brighter, fresher colors is far too tempting for the vampiric book. Satoshi won't have any of that, however, no sir! Already the kit's watery scarf is in hand, growing frigid and thin in the manner of a whip so that it can be sent lashing at the book--hopefully avoiding the thrashing Mamoru. Trails of frost and icicles are left in the whip's wake where it strikes, and the book's rustling has certainly slowed with the cold, but it still won't let go of Mamoru. "Quickly, Sundrop!"
Daisy doesn't move as quickly as Satoshi does, but the determination is still there. She whispers softly, moving towards the poor guardian of hers. "Sshhh..." A paw manages to touch Mamoru's tail. Bit by bit, the couatl stills as she moves her paw up his back, calming and soothing and taking away that rage. She moves a touch quicker now, towards that exhausted head still having unwanted makeouts with the draining book. "Be still." Both paws claw into the binding and pull. She pulls and pulls, but the book is having nothing to do with her. Mamoru makes a whimpering, crying sound that stabs Daisy right in the feels. Desperate, she looks to Satoshi. "I can't."
Satoshi looks desperate, gaze darting to and fro in search of a solution. She'd offer her own magic, but the book has no interest in it over the couatl. Daisy could do the same, but they'd be in no better a position if it latched onto the druid. Mind racing, the kit moves to stand beside the druid, adding her claws to the mix and pulling. There's a hint of movement, just the faintest suggestion the book is slipping off Mamoru's face, and yet it isn't enough, the couatl continues to drain of color, looking more gray than green. Again the magus heaves with all her might upon the book's bindings, and again it shifts marginally. "It needs something." Another yank. "Something with magic." Yank yank yank. "New magic. New taste." Puuuuull. "Something unique!" But nearly everything Satoshi possesses is either enchanted with ice or darkness, two elements the book has grown fat upon. It is unlikely to lift a page toward what Satoshi has to offer--although this doesn't stop the magus' mind from running inventory, trying to find something in her bag that might making a tempting snack.
Daisy 's heart races. Mamoru! Her sweet and wonderful and perfect Mamoru! Oh he is dangerously faded and there is nothing she can do. Magic! This book needs something magic and new and- THUNK. That tail. That mischevious and spiky tail with a mind of its own stabs that book. Not because it cares for the couatl or wants to help out. Oh no. Because it likes to stab things and it has never stabbed a book before. "See there, book! Leathery tails are tastier than couatls."
Satoshi pauses in her tugging as the book goes rigid, Daisy's tail buried through the cover and into half the pages. With a pop, Mamoru's head comes free as a low whistle begins to sound from the book's pages. Slowly the noise builds until it is a deafening shriek that has Satoshi clapping her hands over sensitive ears. What pages aren't impaled on the spiked tail start to wave wildly in the air, yanking Daisy's tail back and forth with the thrashing. Newly acquired rainbow colors gain an addition, a sickly, bright green and a miasmic black, infesting the bright colors like a oil stain. The mixture of colors are nauseating to look upon as they ripple and swirl, the natural 'goodness' of a couatl's aura clashing with the unnatural and deathly nature of the tail's venoms. Yet even as the book is being poisoned, it is likewise feeding upon the tail, hellbent to drain and absorb the strangeness of a gaunt tail. Like blood, ink begins to drip from the stab 'wound' and the book's shrieks grow louder, pitching above the hearing levels of even Satoshi and Daisy. Book or tail, one of them will have to give before the other, and the contest has Satoshi looking ill at ease as she takes a cautious step back, hand on the back of Daisy's shirt--although she can hardly pull the druid along to safety, for it'd just bring the tail and book with her!
Daisy 's ears fold down on her head as she winces. Such loud. So painful. Wow. She is yanked back and forth along with that tail until Satoshi takes hold of her shirt. A paw is placed on the Queen's during a brief moment of non-thrashing. "Help Mamoru. Please." She looks over at her exhausted companion there on the floor, all dull and sad and lifeless. =< Poor thing. I said brief, right? The tail is yanked again, pulling Daisy out of Satoshi's grasp. That or the shirt is ripped off and this show is pg-13. So kittens are tugged about, not quite sure what to do. The tail knows what to do, though! Sure it is being drained, but the furry one is not telling it to stop! There is no scolding or disgusting sunshiney rays of happy telling it to behave. Yes! If tails could airpunch, air would be punched. Instead the tail stabs again. Again and again and again, driven by the denial of stabbery it has been forced under for so long.
Satoshi hesitates, torn being retrieving Daisy and helping Mamoru. But what can she do to assist the couatl? She is no druid, and what he needs is a druid, which is precisely why the kit wades forward then, intent upon looping a firm arm around the kitten's waist while the other hand goes for her tail. Satoshi's palms glow with the azure light of her magic, sheathing her hand in a glove of ice to avoid getting jabbed by spikes or retaliating stinger. And thus Satoshi works to wrestle Daisy and her aggressive tail away while a boot is used to kick the hole-riddled book away, sliding further down the aisle. The book remains where it stops, lying open with pages splayed and battered, mutli-colored ink pooling around it. It has fed to bursting, falling dormant from the feast and venom alike. Seeing this, Satoshi huffs indignantly, whiskers quivering with the sound.
Daisy falls into those arms as she is torn away from the book. Her own arms cling to the queen with her nose buried in Satoshi's chest. "Thank you." That leathery tail gives the book one last poke before curling up happily there on the floor behind the kitten. "I'm sorry about your book." Mamoru is hurt and Daisy is banged up a little, but mostly she is concerned with damaging her queen's property.
Satoshi waves off the apology with a grin that scrunches up her nose and whiskers. "It's a bit of a vampire, I'm sure it will recover. And hopefully it's learned its lesson. But more importantly!" With a twist and a turn, Satoshi plants Daisy down in front of Mamoru, the couatl so drained of color he looks like he's slithered right out of an old movie. "Our dear little one needs a druid's touch. I lack the skills to provide him energy or healing, Sundrop, that's your forte." While she talks, the kit's tails coil out from behind her, the inky black one of the bunch inching forward to nudge Daisy's tail curiously.
Daisy immediately wraps her arms around poor Mamoru. Poor, grey Mamoru. This is going to take more than a pretty flower to fix, kitten. You don't have any type of greenery or plantish tonic to heal this kind of magic. You're going to have to do it the old fashioned way. *cue dramatic chipmunk music* She nods and nuzzles her nose to Mamoru's while her paws pet over his face and neck. There are little whispers of love and healing and maybe you can even hear birds chirping there in the library. It doesn't happen all at once. Random splashes of color spring back into the couatl's body. A scale here, a feather there, popcorning the couatl back to his previous state of glory. Just after the very last kernal, Daisy looks over at Satoshi and smiles weakly before promptly passing out from exhaustion. She'll sleep for a day. Luckily Mamoru is healthy again to watch over her. <3 What doesn't pass out is that tail of hers. It perks up again when nudged and even coils around that curious poker. Not dangerous or threatening. More like a hug of companionship.
Satoshi wordlessly sits down on the floor beside Daisy, nudging a free tail under the druid's head like a pillow while three others drape over her small form. If Daisy is going to sleep for a day, than Satoshi is going to be doing a lot of reading right on this very spot. Well, reading, and warily watching her black sheep of a tail continue to interact with Daisy's. She's not entirely sure she sould be comfortable with Asorial getting acquainted with a gaunt tail, but at least they're not fighting. Yet.